The Best Christmas Gift Of All - A Paralyzed Boy Goes Home

December 20, 1992|By Orange County (calif.) Register

SANTA ANA, CALIF. — What 5-year-old David Arechiga wanted that day in March 1987 was some candy. But as he ran back across the street from the lunch truck, he was hit by a car and paralyzed from the neck down.

This fall, after five years in a rehabilitation hospital, David whispered to his family his only Christmas wish: Take me home.

Tightly strapped into his wheelchair, dressed in green and red and smiling broadly, David was welcomed to a potluck lunch in his honor at Carr Intermediate School, where staff members sang him Christmas songs and presented his financially strapped family with $800.

Unable to turn his head and breathing with the help of a respirator, David nevertheless sang along to ''Feliz Navidad'' - ''I want to wish you a merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart.''

Then, in a loud whisper, he told his new friends, ''Thank you. Thank you, everybody.''

A windup Santa Claus pinned to David's green sweatshirt waved its arms at the crowd.

After his accident five years ago, David was in a coma for two weeks. Then he was transferred to Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey. His family visited him each week, but the distance meant they couldn't see him more often than that, and they didn't have space in their home to set up the large sickroom he needs for 24-hour care.

The first group to come to David's assistance was the Downey Optimists Club, which will renovate the garage behind the Arechigas' house in the next few months.

The family will fulfill David's wish by bringing him home for a Christmas Day visit. More than 100 family members will be on hand to celebrate with such traditional Mexican dishes as tamales, posole and menudo.

The boy will go back to the hospital after Christmas for about a month, but once his room is ready he will come home for good.

The staff at Carr Intermediate decided to raise money for David's return after finding out about him from his oldest sister, Lupe, 26, who works there as a secretary.

''We're a family,'' said Mary Packard, the school's office manager.

For David's family, the party at Carr was bittersweet.

''It's very nice, but I can't say I'm happy,'' said Anita Arechiga, David's mother, wiping away tears. ''If he wasn't like this, we wouldn't be here. If he could walk, they wouldn't have to do this.''

David is the baby of the family - the youngest of eight children.

''By now, he's tired of being in the hospital,'' said David's father, Rafael. ''He's gotten very depressed. His eyes are very sad.''

The 55-year-old unemployed construction worker began to cry, too, as he added, ''We're very worried, too. We love him very much and it's been very hard for us. It never gets easier.''